UK antitrust tribunal rules against Epic.
Epic’s marketing campaign hit a brick wall this week as the UK antitrust tribunal ruled against the maker of Fortnite. The tribunal concluded that the United States would be a more suitable forum for the case against Apple, however it did rule that a lawsuit against Alphabet Inc. (Google) could proceed.
Epic has been waging a marketing war against Apple and Google since mid-2020 when both services removed Fortnite after Epic broke both company’s terms of service by adding a direct payment method. The campaign has taken the form of several lawsuits, the formation of a lobbying group, as well as a Fortnite tournament complete with video game consoles as prizes. While Fortnite can be installed without Google Play, Apple users do not have such an easy option. Last week the Epic-backed Coalition For App Fairness paid a lot of money to North Dakota lawmakers in an effort to make it illegal for companies like Apple to impose rules requiring the use of their app stores. The bill failed in an 11-36 vote.
Epic for their part allows the use of third party payment processors by publishers who publish on the Epic Games Store, and allows those publishers to bypass Epic’s pay share.
Source: Bloomberg
MMO Fallout 